Grateful Dead Music Forum

I just picked up a Roland AC-90 Acoustic Amp. I havent seen much discussion here about acoustic amps. I always played my acoustics through my Fender twin because I really like the clean channel. So for some reason I was never too open to getting an acoustic amp.

I was really wrong. This amp has some really great clean sounds and is a big improvement.

The reason I started looking into them is that I had a professional guitarist come by (Check out Michael Isla http://www.islaguitar.com )that wanted to be sponsored by Breedlove. He came by to check out a custom shop guitar I had in stock. He loved it but he told me that he felt if I had an acoustic amp the sound would be even better and would make it easier on me to sell acoustic guitars. By the way, he came for a 15 minute test drive and wound up staying for hours jamming and bullshitting with me. He got his hands on my Warren Haynes Les Paul and couldnt put it down, as he rarely plays electric. (the wife wasnt too happy about it but I loved it!)

So anyone use acoustic amps or have thoughts about them?

I've got a Fender Acoustisonic Jr and am very happy with it. Last acoustic show I did (with JD) I plugged my guitar and vocals into the AcJr but used it as a monitor for myself (read very low volume) then used the output (-10db) to my Yamaha powered speaker and was in tonal and volume bliss!

I picked up a great Trace Elliot acoustic amp on ebay a few years ago. These were the hot acoustic amps in the 90's and cost a small fortune. They stopped making them at some point and focused on their bass amp business. I noticed recently that they have brought them back-now with improvements. And they are whopping expensive. I got mine for 500, 2 channels, 30-some alesis delays, 2, 5" tweeters and a nice big 15" bass speaker. Heavy as a bitch. But works great with my Martin or other dread plugged in. Nice and quiet solid state (all my electric amps are tubes). EQ and notch filer, (plus a Baggs DI) to keep any howl down. And a really good clean acoustic sound. For a solo gig its perfect -2channels allows you to play in one and sing through the other. Worth a look.
At the time I also looked at AER's and Rivera acosutic amp (Sedona I think) which are great and pricey.
Good luck.

I have a Roland AC60 and a Marshall AS100D. I usually use the Roland for jamming with others.

The Marshall AS100 has 4 channels so I've used this for solo gigging.....
Guitar/Mic/Korg Pandora for drums&bass/RCA jack for ipod during breaks.

Sometimes add the roland as an extension for more projection.

It's worked well.

Strummin had it right with his acoustic at those shows we played. I would go away from the amp that I was using, (rented Peavey). I like the Trace Elliot that Jerry played at the Berkley show back in 94. TA100r I think. I also used to have a pendulum sps that thing was awsome, I wish I had it back. I am working on my acoustic rig early this year so we will have to wait to see what falls together for the next shows.

I use a Schertler Unico amp - it is bi-amped 180w - three inputs for line or mic (w/phantom power). I use it with my gypsy jazz band and my Del'Arte guitar (I use the Schertler Dyn-G pickup for the Del'Arte and a Schertler Blue Stick for my Taylor). I love the amp - these guys make really great stuff. This thing is basically a high quality studio monitor with a 3 channel mixer. I've used it as a small PA for coffee house gigs, once for my whole bluegrass band when a mixer failed. They are a bit pricey but I think they're well worth it. They're a Swiss company and not widely available in the US but they're around.

I always prefer to mic the acoustic whenever possible as they always sound better if the sound actually moves through the air first. I have never liked the rubbery piezo sound. The pickups these guys make are small condenser mics (even the under the saddle Blue Stick pickup) and sound better than most of the other acoustic pickups out there.

I havent had much luck dialing in a condenser mic inside the guitar to exactly where I wanted it. I sold the guitar that this pic is from before I got my acoustic amp and might have been great. You can see here that the dials are in the sound hole. The mix dial is a dial for the LG Baggs dual element. There are 2 pickups the regular LR Baggs active element and the condenser mic. You can use one pickup or combination of the two.

The guy I sold it to made it work great he told me. That was exactly what he was looking for when he bought it. It was a sweet guitar though.

jackr wrote:I havent had much luck dialing in a condenser mic inside the guitar to exactly where I wanted it. I sold the guitar that this pic is from before I got my acoustic amp and might have been great. You can see here that the dials are in the sound hole. The mix dial is a dial for the LG Baggs dual element. There are 2 pickups the regular LR Baggs active element and the condenser mic. You can use one pickup or combination of the two.

I had a Fishman Blender system before I tried the Schertler. The Fishman system worked about the same as the LR Baggs except it had an external control box. The Schertler Bluestick is different - it is a miniature condenser mic in a small tube that goes under the saddle like a piezo transducer. Not nearly as rubbery sounding as even a blender system IMHO. The pickup I use on my Del'Arte gypsy jazz guitar is a surface mounted pickup w/xlr output. Sounds great but is a little clunky to have to stick onto the top of the guitar - I believe they make an internal mounted version now. Though my preference is still a large diaphragm condenser in front of the guitar.

http://www.schertler.com/homepage_schertler/blu-en.html
http://www.schertler.com/homepage_scher ... ng-en.html

The Unico Amp
http://www.schertler.com/homepage_scher ... co-en.html

I also have their Class-A preamp too:
http://www.schertler.com/homepage_scher ... rs-en.html

I got turned onto these by the Kruger Brothers - they are a Swiss bluegrass duo, and really good and worth checking out. I jammed with them a couple of times.